Secrets
by InTheShadowOfSignificance
Summary: Because the choices we make are everything, even when no one else knows we had them. Duelist Kingdom insight.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Yugioh, nor do I claim rights to any of the affiliated characters.

**Warnings/Notes: **Takes place well after the Duelist Kingdom saga, AND after the movie "Pyramid of Light" in which Seto defeats Pegasus in a duel.

* * *

**Secrets**

In this life he knows there are many things people keep from one another. Some days he wonders if his secrets are well-founded…if he has reason enough to put them in a box and push them so far under the rug that they are unreachable, even to Seto.

On good days he is content in believing that he is doing nothing wrong, if anything he is protecting his brother and the elder's need to fuel relationships with resentment, and anger. But there are nights when the rain is falling and the thunder is so loud, and so close, and he begins to wonder if he is betraying one man for the sake of another.

* * *

It was not always cold, damp air. It was not always stone walls and iron bars, the desperate feeling of emptiness that is to wander and not belong. No, in the beginning, past the haze of fear and grief, it was almost…magical.

Raven locks matted to his young face seemed to bother the taller man, whose large, softened hand brushed the tresses from his cheeks. "Don't worry," crooned the voice that towered above him, "it will be over very soon." The child braced himself for pain, the sharp, breath-catching blows he had grown to expect from his stepfather, but they never came. The second he had been taken, he had convinced himself that Pegasus Crawford was everything like the tyrant he used to cower from, but in that moment, from their first encounter, the notion felt wrong.

Time wore on. He found himself in an extravagant room, something oddly old-fashioned that would never grace the halls of Kaiba Corp. Somewhere behind the fear and grief of being separated from Seto, a small whisper prodded that the amenities were too lavish – too generous – for a captive. All at once he was suspicious and hopeful.

When the men in black suits came to deliver his food, he heard the red-suited man chuckle softly, that deep, lulling quality of his voice pulling the child from thoughts of escape. And he took a chance. All of the anguish and panic he felt came spilling out in long, mournful sobs, so potent that he couldn't stop them, even when he began to have doubt that his cries would draw the man's attention as they had that first day.

His head hurt and what happened next was a dizzying rush of mocking laughter and terse words. "Look at the little runt." The food was dropped casually onto a tray just inside the door, following the chorus of a second and third employee. "Yeah, how pathetic."

He felt his stomach bottom out, succumbing to feelings of shame and defeat before the angry, authoritative voice said, "Leave us." Then there were no thoughts, no words, no anything. The door closed and the footsteps approached. For some reason, he sobbed harder.

"Little one," in his desperation for human contact and comfort, he did not sense danger in the elder's words, "this is all a matter of business." Strong arms lifted him from the bed and stood him in front of him, "You and your brother will be together again just as soon as he relents, and I have what I want."

"I love my brother!" Because it was all he could think to say. Because somehow, to cope with the trauma, Pegasus had become Seto, who needed to know that he loved him in case they never saw each other again.

"I know." The softened hand found his face again, wiping his tears. "It's hard to be away from the ones we love." The fingers left his boyish features, "But it's only temporary. The more you cooperate," he crouched to the child's level, "the sooner you'll see your big brother." A hand was placed on each of Mokuba's shoulders, adding to the impact of Pegasus's looming gaze, "If you do as you're told, I can make this much, much easier on you. Understand?"

Mokuba nodded, and giving him a final reassuring pat on the cheek, Pegasus rose, gone almost as quickly as he had come.

* * *

He knows that everything in this life is about choices, sometimes he wonders if these choices are _always_ a matter of loyalty. On good days he realizes that Seto is right, Pegasus is a self-serving narcissist who only cares for himself, but there are nights when he wonders what their ordeal would have been like if he had heeded the man's warning, if he had listened.

He has never told Seto of those first few days in Pegasus's castle, because if Seto didn't have his outrage and anger, what _would _he have? But Mokuba wonders about Pegasus Crawford's secrets, searching for a box under a rug that holds what the man had truly wanted from his brother, and why.

Because in the end, though family is his everything and he will be loyal to Seto over anyone, Mokuba knows that there is more to life than the outcome of the card games.

Because at the end of the day, victories aside, there is no question who outsmarted who.

* * *

"There are many victories worse than a defeat." - George Elliot


End file.
